Yet, not to hide the deed from the common people, they cut off his head, slung his body on a horse, took it out of the wood, and handed it over to the dwellers in a village near, announcing that the sons of Frowin had taken vengeance upon Athisl, King of the Swedes, for the slaying of their father.

Boasting of such a victory as this, they were received by Wermund with the highest honours; for he thought they had done a most useful deed, and he preferred to regard the glory of being rid of a rival with more attention than the infamy of committing an outrage.

Nor did he judge that the killing of a tyrant was in any wise akin to shame.

It passed into a proverb among foreigners, that the death of the king had broken down the ancient principle of combat.
When Wermund was losing his sight by infirmity of age, the King of Saxony, thinking that Denmark lacked a leader, sent envoys ordering him to surrender to his charge the kingdom which he held beyond the due term of life; lest, if he thirsted to hold sway too long, he should strip his country of laws and defence.

For how could he be reckoned a king, whose spirit was darkened with age, and his eyes with blindness not less black and awful?
If he refused, but yet had a son who would dare to accept a challenge and fight with his son, let him agree that the victor should possess the realm.